Shanghailander

Belgium cities are mostly famous for their Art Nouveau architecture, built before WWI. While visiting Belgium I was on the hunt for Art Deco buildings, expecting very little apart from enjoying Art Nouveau. This was true in Brussels where Art Deco buildings are very few, but Antwerpen offered a nice surprise. The main Art Deco feature of the city is the 1932 Boerentoren (today known as KBC tower). First Art Deco tower in Europe, it was also the tallest when it was built and was renovated in the 1970’s after being considered for demolition.

The Boerentoren is an Art Deco wonder with the sculptures ornamenting the façade, in particular the cover for the main entrance. The building originally hosted offices and apartments, as well as a restaurant and a beer bar (this is Belgium after all) at the 10^th floor, on the top of both wings (as seen on the 1930’s picture). It’s shape is quite similar to Shanghai’s Grosvenor house.

Another Art Deco wonder is located on the riverside. The décor of the building and the location makes it clearly linked to the shipping industry. I guess it was the headquarters of a shipping line or a marine insurance. Since many many buildings on the waterfront were destroyed during WWII, it is quite miraculous that this one has survived. I particularly liked the door in the picture.

The last area with Art Deco was around the central station. Although the station and the zoo next to it are Art Nouveau treasures, several buildings on the boulevard away from the station are of Art Deco design. The most spectacular is probably the Century building (picture left), now a hotel. The main features are the geometrical sculpture on the top of each column, the iron balconies and the staircase shape of the building itself. We continued walking in the city with a short visit in the shop of a famous retailer, established in nice Art Deco piece, just like one of the Shanghai branch on Nanjing Xi Lu. In Antwerp, not only the outside is Art Deco, but the inside of the shop as also been kept in its original state. I wish it was the case also for Shanghai Art Deco buildings turned into shops.

I had not been back to Wuhan since 3 years ago when I wrote the post “Upriver, Hankou’s foreign concessions“. A recent business trip, gave me the opportunity to spend a few hours in that area again. Always a nice way to relax between meetings.

The first major change I noticed was WuhanTiandi. Just like in Shanghai XinTianDi (developped by the same company), a few old houses have been kept and totally renewed. Not much of the old remains, but the design has made it a nice area with many shops and restaurant. Just like in Shanghai a few years ago, Wuhan TianDi is an island of new and fashionable in an area of faded glory, but the builders are just waiting and soon the whole place will be a celebration of brand new apartment towers and shopping malls. Fortunately, Wuhan TianDi was built mostly outside the central historic areas, this makes it a great stop after strolling through the small streets of the former concessions.

Going up through the former Japanese and German concessions, I ran into this old apartment building from 1910. The style are archways are similar to buildings of the same style in Shanghai, like on Feng Yan lu. Wooden doors with glass are quite similar, as well as the later closure of the archways with windows to increase the usable space.This was probably residence for middle class, not quite a villa but a modern and comfortable housing building.

Looking at it in details, one can find a British Crown engraved on the wall. Although it has clearly been hammered down it is still visible and reminded me of the one I saw on a building in Salay in Burma (Click here to see the picture). This building was probably built for housing civil servants working for the British administration like the police.

I continued walking along the Bund, passing by the former German consulate that is now the town hall of Hankou and by the former Banque de L’Indochine and the former American consulate, which architecture is very similar to the long gone American consulate on the Shanghai Bund. Further up is located the only Secession style building I ever saw in China (see former post about Hangkou), that is currently under renovation. Hopefully this will turn out for the better, though I would not hold my breath on it.

Finally, I dived in the small streets behing Marco Polo hotel, looking for what is probably my prefered building in Hankou. One of my Shanghai friend referred to it as the “building looking like the Normandy building in Shanghai”. They surely have a similar look, both being red brick triangular buildings, but the Hankou one is much older and much smaller as well. The building unique shape can be well seen on the map in the former Russian concession. I heard that the Wuhan government is about to move inhabitants away and renovate it. Hopefully the renovation will not destroy it’s unique cachet.

At the end of the day, although Hankou former concession are way smaller than the Shanghai ones, they are still very nice, worth a few hours strolling along the tree lined streets.

I have previously written about Shanghai Art Deco architecture, this post is focused on a different style also popular in Old Shanghai, the Spanish Colonial Revival style. A bit like Art Deco was inspired by the 1925 Paris exhibition, Spanish Revival was inspired by the Panama-California exhibition in San Diego in 1915. It was very popular in California from 1915 until 1931, and spread in the Pilippines and Australia, New Zealand (Hawkes Bay is a fine example). It was also very popular in Old Shanghai.

Inspired by colonial Spanish architecture in Mexico and Latin America, Spanish Revival Architecture was using it as a base, adapting it with more modern materials and techniques. Many of these houses were built in the Los Angeles and Southern California, becoming the homes of Hollywood movie stars like the 1928 El Cabrillo built by Cecil B DeMille ( made famous by the movie “The ten commandments”) and the 1929 El Greco Apartments once home to star actor Michael Curtis.

At this period, going to the movie was a major form of entertainment in Shanghai with movies being shown in many theaters or the many dedicated movie theater freshly built. The life of Chinese and American movie stars was reported in numerous dedicated magazines just like today. It is only natural that Shanghainese of the time wanted to have houses built in a similar style to the ones of the stars of the time. Many turned to Spanish Revival style for the design (the author actually lived in one of those).

Just like Art Deco took a few years to come from USA and Europe to Shanghai, Spanish Revival was really popular in Shanghai when it was already less fashionable in California. Major buildings in the USA were built in the late 1920’s, but the one in Shanghai were often built in the mid to late 1930’s. Most of them are actually located in the south west of the former French concession on streets like Yong Jia lu near Heng Shan Lu, as well Fuxing lu and the surrounding streets West from Huai Hai lu, as houses in this part of town were mostly built in the mid to late 30’s. Spanish revival architecture is displayed in 1931 Shanghai movie “Love and duty”, of which a numer of scenes are filmed in this area.

Some can also be found around Yu Yuan Lu, in the former International Settlement. Like in California, they were mostly villas, one of the best example being the former residence of the head of customs, at the corner of Fuxing Lu and Fen Yang Lu. One of the few examples of an apartments building is in this style is Haig Court on Avenue Haig (to day Hua Shan hotel on Hua Shan Lu). See post “Haig Court” for more details.

The main characteristics are the round tiles used for the roof and the roof side decoration. Another usual feature is, as well as large windows often with a round top, separated by white fake columns. Doors often are massive wooden doors, with sculpted surrounding. Spanish revival buildings have a very distinctive style and bring a bit of latin experience to Shanghai. From what I gathered, there was no famous foreign architect firm specializing in Spanish revival. The style was mostly developed by local architect with the help of architecture magazines such as “The Chinese architect” and “The builder”. It also seems that Abelardo Lafuente designed of few Spanish revival buildings, although it is not totally confirmed and this is not the style he is famous for. Laszlo Hudec also designed some Spanish revival residence, but he was by far not contained to this style.